1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a strobe popping-up apparatus for moving a strobe body between a retracted position, in which the strobe is retracted into a camera body, and a projected position, in which the strobe is projected from the camera body.
2. Description of Related Art
Various known strobe popping-up apparatuses are known having a strobe body which is linearly movable, or is rotatable about a point, or is moved by a complex movement of more than one shaft, between a retracted position and a projected position. Among the first type of strobe popping-up apparatus having a linearly movable strobe body, there is no possibility of an accidental deviation of an optical axis of the strobe in the projected position. However, in the popping-up apparatuses having a rotatable strobe body or more than one shaft, an accidental deviation of the optical axis of the strobe (including an optical axis of an auxiliary projector, if any) from a design value takes place when the position after the popping-up is completed, i.e. the retracted position is slightly displaced, thus resulting in a deteriorated orientation characteristic (direction of illumination) of the strobe and a decreased efficiency of the auxiliary projector.
FIG. 5 shows a known strobe popping-up mechanism having two shafts. In FIG. 5, the strobe body 11 is provided, on the front and rear portions of the sides thereof, with two shafts 12 and 13 to which ends of front and rear rotational levers 14 and 15 are pivoted.
The opposite ends of the rotational levers 14 and 15 are pivoted to shafts 17 and 18 provided on a supporting member 16, respectively, so that the rotational movement of the rotational levers 14 and 15 about the shafts 17 and 18 causes the strobe body 11 to move between a retracted position and a projected position.
In the known apparatus shown in FIG. 5, the position of the strobe body 11 is determined, for example, by a stop 19 which restricts the rotational displacement of the rotational lever 15. However, if the stop 19 fails to be precisely positioned at a predetermined position (i.e. a designed position) with respect to the supporting member 16, as shown by a two-dot chain line 19' or a three-dot chain line 19" in FIG. 5, the strobe body 11 occupies different projected positions, as shown by a two-dot chain line 11' and a three-dot chain line 11" in FIG. 5. Numeral 11A designates a correct projected position of the strobe body 11.
One of the fatal problems of the prior art mentioned above is a deviation of the optical axis of the strobe body 11 an upward and downward direction, resulting in a deviation of the direction of the strobe illumination from a designed optical axis. Namely, the optical axes O' and O" shown at two-dot chain line and three-dot chain line are largely deviated from the designed correct optical axis O, as shown in FIG. 5. To prevent this, it is necessary to precisely position the stop 19. However, this is troublesome. In particular, if a displacement of the position of the stop 19 of the strobe occurs after it is shipped a user, for example by wear, a photographer can neither recognize the displacement nor adjust it. As a result, a picture taken by a photographer has a wrong strobe orientation which does not match the picture plane.